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Our beautiful babies won top prizes

BABY life is beautiful for these gorgeous tots who have triumphed in our Royal Echo baby and toddler competition.

We teamed up with the Royals Southend and Premier Promotions to offer mums and dads the chance to get a professional photoshoot of their little ones at the Royals shopping centre, in Southend, over three different days in July.

The photos were then featured in the Echo and our readers voted for the winners – and here they are.

Winner of the 0 to 18-month section was ten-month-old Esmee Atkinson, from Southend. Her win came all the more poignant for mum Sianne, who came first in the same Echo competition 22 years ago.

Sianne, 22, said: “I couldn’t believe it when I found out Esmee had won as I won the Echo baby competition myself when I was 11 months old.

“It seems our family have a knack of winning these competitions.

“I was so proud of Esmee.

She is such a happy baby. She is always smiling.

“My mum is already saying if Esmee has a baby one day we have to enter the Echo competition!”

Little Evan Moreno-Otter, from Leigh, scooped first place in the 19 month to three-yearold section.

His mum and dad, Liz and Russell, were out at the Royals doing some shopping when they saw the photoshoot for the contest going on.

Liz, 31, said: “My husband saw it and said we should enter Evan into it.

“It’s the first time we’ve ever entered a baby competition.”

Toby Muir, winner of the three to six-year-old category, could have a glittering career in modelling ahead of him, if this win is anything to go by.

Originally, his mum Lisa took Toby’s little brother Harry, one, along for the Royals photoshoot. but when Toby realised he could enter too, he decided to show Harry the ropes.

Lisa, 43, from Westcliff, said; “Toby said to us ‘let me do it first and show Harry how it’s done’, so we let him and he ended up winning!”